


Delayed Reactions

by antigrav_vector



Series: 890fifth prompt fills [5]
Category: Captain America (MCU), Iron Man (Comics), Iron Man (MCU), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: 890fifth, Alternate Universe, Canon Divergence, Cap-Ironman Bingo, F/M, M/M, Pre-Slash, Some feels, borrows from both movie and comics canons, mixing and matching of MCU canon and timelines
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-14
Updated: 2016-01-14
Packaged: 2018-05-13 23:31:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5721124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/antigrav_vector/pseuds/antigrav_vector
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes a conversation can cause a revelation. Sometimes that revelation takes a while to happen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Delayed Reactions

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'ed. Yes, I'm quite late with this fill, but I got it done. 
> 
> Fills both the round eleven 890Fifth prompt 'you can't go home', and the 'home' square on my Stony bingo card.

"I don't care, Tony," Pepper pinched the bridge of her nose. "Get the paparazzi away from here for a few days. Find a way. This is too much."

Tony winced. "But the Malibu house is--"

"Tony," Pepper cut him off. "I. Don't. Care. We need a few days of peace here at HQ to get the arc reactor press started. The constant photography snipefest anytime your face is anywhere near a window is counterproductive. Get out of the tower. Go crash with one of your Avenger friends. Find a one night stand. Just give me a chance to _get the ball rolling_."

With a groan, Tony scrubbed at his face with his hands. The worst thing about it was that she was right. Ever since the Battle of New York, now three weeks ago, and the Avengers' big public debut, the number of photographers hoping to get a juicy snapshot of him had more than quadrupled. It was getting to the point where no one who could remotely be considered a VIP wanted to go anywhere near the Tower as a result, and that was interfering with the press conferences Pepper wanted to hold to publicise the clean energy initiatives Tony had been working on for the better part of four years, now. Those were his pet projects, and he'd wanted to be around for the first real unveiling. "Alright, fine," he conceded. "How long do you need?"

Pepper's expression softened slightly. "A week. Preferably with no front page news concerning you and your misadventures to distract from the reactor campaign."

"No promises."

What he needed to do was make a very public exit, and do what he could to get the paparazzi to follow him. A few would likely stay in the hopes of catching Pepper on camera, and a few more would linger, hoping Tony would be back soon, but the majority would hopefully trail after him like supremely annoying ducklings.

"I'm well aware that you're a trouble magnet, Tony," Pepper replied, a wry smile pulling at her lips.

He smirked at her. "That's half the fun."

"Will that be all, Mr. Stark," she asked, falling back on their old call-and-response as she stood, the legs of her chair scraping quietly against the floor.

"Yes. Thank you, Ms. Potts." He couldn't seem to summon up the smile that the joke usually warranted. Standing from his seat behind his desk, he walked her to the elevator. "Knock 'em dead."

She gave him a sweet smile that hid nothing of the steel in her backbone. "As always."

Tony watched the elevator doors close, then turned away to step up to the large plate glass windows lining the corridor, which ran along the very outside of the Tower. Manhattan spread out beneath his feet like a tapestry of steel and glass, interspersed with the occasional splash of concrete or art deco architecture. He'd miss the city, half-crippled though it still was from the Chitauri attack, while he was away.

He had no idea where he wanted to go. He could take the armour and fly to his property in Spain, but the idea somehow didn't appeal to him. Nor did he really want to be so far away from his team, if they had to deal with any kind of follow-up attack. Malibu really was the best option, unless he was about to open up the mansion on Fifth and airing it out.

Tony made a face. He hadn't been there in literally decades. He'd closed it up when his parents and Jarvis died and not bothered much with it since. After all, it had never held a lot of good memories for him, and without Jarvis to keep it up, there was little point living there. No one could possibly have taken Jarvis' place.

And yet, Tony couldn't seem to bring himself to part with the property.

Maybe, he decided, he ought to renovate it. Make it his own in a way he hadn't up to this point. He could also designate it Avengers HQ and write it off on his taxes, rather than house the team in the Tower itself and risk the building getting attacked because of their presence.

Suddenly more cheerful, he called the elevator. "Workshop, J. I've got some plans to make."

The elevator smoothly started descending. "What sort of plans, sir?"

"We got the floor plans for the mansion on file anywhere?"

"One moment, sir."

"When you find 'em, render as a wireframe model with editing enabled. And scrounge up the forms we'll need for the permits to renovate the place."

Almost before he'd stopped speaking, the elevator stopped and the doors opened near-silently to reveal his locked workshop in the Tower basement. Stepping out of the elevator car, he watched as the holographic keypad popped up the moment he was within arm's reach, faithfully responsive. It was the work of under a second to type in his code, and then the locked door was popping open with a quiet puff of escaping air. 

He was still in there ten hours later when a knock came on the door, transmitted by JARVIS to carry over the music blasting in the workshop. Tony blinked and saved his work, his hands moving automatically and almost without his volition in a habit so old and ingrained it was unlikely to ever go away. "Who's there?"

It wasn't Pepper. She never bothered to knock. Nor did Rhodey. No one else ever bothered to come down here.

"Sir," JARVIS informed him, "Captain Rogers is requesting entry."

What.

No, really. What?

Tony turned to look over his shoulder at the door, and, sure enough, there was the Capsicle. Now this was surreal. "Mute the music an let him in, J."

Cap caught the door the moment it popped open, and walked in, his eyes darting everywhere, cataloguing.

Tony let him do that for a moment before he interrupted, pulling Rogers' attention back where it belonged. "Cap," he nodded, keeping his expression neutral, "something wrong?"

"No."

Rogers looked like he meant the opposite. Tony snorted. "Try again. Why are you here?"

"Well, you weren't answering your phone, so I asked Ms. Potts where you were."

Tony gave him a flat look. "And what was so important, then?"

"I couldn't contact you. We're a team. That's important." Rogers shrugged, as though effectively barging into Tony's workshop was the least he would do.

"So, what, if I hadn't let you in, you'd have broken down the door," Tony rolled his eyes. They'd more or less made up when they'd sent Loki off with Thor, securely muzzled, but the tension crackling between them still remained. Tony wasn't quite sure why.

Rogers shrugged. "If necessary. It wasn't."

"Are you for real?" Tony scoffed. "You break down my workshop door, and we will have _words_ Rogers. This place is supposed to be secure for a reason, and it better stay that way."

"Then answer your phone next time," came the calm reply.

Tony rolled his eyes at his team's nominal leader. "And if I was to tell you I'll be incommuncado for the next week?"

"That's fine, as long as you let me know."

This guy was unbelievable. "You expect me to go out of my way to find you and tell you that, when _Pepper_ usually barely knows before I do. I don't think so, Rogers. You don't rate that high on my list of people I want to waste time tracking down."

"Then I'll just have to stay with you."

With a frustrated growl, Tony swiped his hand angrily through the holographic display for the mansion that was still glowing blue level with his chest. It winked out obediently, and a generic blueprint of a transistor array took its place. "That's not gonna fly, either, Cap," Tony shot back, his tone of voice turning the nickname into an epithet. "My work is pretty much all above your pay grade, and I'm not about to compromise that because you want to pin me down on a whim."

Rogers crossed his arms. "Well, you'd better figure something out, then. I'm not leaving this room until you do."

Well, shit. Tony scowled darkly at him. He wouldn't be able to get the armour on before Rogers was on him and probably clinging stubbornly to his back as they flew, and there was no way he could outrun the asshole on foot.

He'd just have to find a way to get out while Rogers' back was turned or something.

Why did the asshole have to show up now?

There was no doubt in Tony's mind that Rogers would simply follow him to the mansion if he tried to leave the Tower, and that was unacceptable. He had no desire to be trapped in any kind of space with Rogers watching his every move and judging him. It would be even worse in the mansion, with all the memories of his father looming over him in addition. Most of them memories of being measured against Rogers' ghost and being found wanting.

Grumbling to himself under his breath, Tony went back to working on his plans for the mansion. That ought to be safe enough to toy with around Rogers. There was no way he'd ever recognise it for what it was, which was good, since then he wouldn't ask too many--

"What are you working on anyway?"

\-- questions. Damn it. "Thinking about renovating."

Rogers nodded slowly, accepting the answer, but clearly not satisfied. "That doesn't look like the Tower."

"That's because it isn't."

A short silence fell in which Tony summarily tore his father's old office out the plans and threw it away, replacing it with a guest bedroom. The other bedrooms in the place were nearby anyway. Having one there shouldn't raise many eyebrows.

"So what is it, then?" Rogers persisted.

Suddenly profoundly irritated, Tony turned to glare at him. "Why the fuck do you care?"

Blinking, clearly surprised by the vehemence behind the response, Rogers hesitated. "Well, I figure, I could stand here and speculate, or ask and hopefully get an honest answer."

"That doesn't answer the question," Tony spat, his tone derisive. "Why. Do. You. Care?"

And for some reason that finally got a response out of Rogers other than calm equanimity. "Maybe I wanted to try to find a way to apologise properly!"

It was Tony's turn to stare at Rogers, dumbfounded. He'd thought they'd dealt with that two weeks ago, when the team had given Loki his send-off. "What the fuck are you on, Rogers? We've been over that already. Buried the hatchet and moved on to 'dislike with a side of civil team interaction time'."

"And if I wanted more than that?" That tone of voice was all Captain, half challenge and half plea. "If I wanted us to at least be on level ground, rather than teammates who hate each other? Or, dare I say it, friends?"

With a disbelieving laugh, Tony disagreed. "Friends? Really, Captain, you'll have to do better than that. We may not be enemies, but we're not friends. And I doubt we ever will be."

"Come on, Stark," Rogers tried again, and Tony rolled his eyes.

The man just didn't give up.

"No," Rogers said, and Tony realised he'd said that out loud, "I don't."

"Ugh, you know what, fine. If it'll get you off my back and out of the workshop." Tony turned pointedly back to the floor plans he was editing.

"Alright. I'll be upstairs," Rogers replied and was abruptly gone.

Tony stared after him, bewildered. "JARVIS," he asked, his tone dark and angry, "what exactly was that about?"

"If you want an answer, sir, I'd suggest asking Captain Rogers."

"Whatever," he spun on the balls of his feet and turned back to the holographic representation of the mansion still projected in the air for him to edit, patiently waiting. "If I can't go home to Malibu, I want the place on Fifth updated properly."

It only struck him months later, as the final renovations were completed and the Avengers moved into the place, that Rogers couldn't go home either.


End file.
